Tempus: Pondering a glass half empty

You can’t please everyone all the time. Punch Taverns’ latest plan to cut its £2 billion-plus of debt is not going to delight all of the bondholders that control the company’s fortunes.

The good news is that trading is at least improving. For the 12 weeks to May 25, the third quarter of its financial year, like-for-like sales were down 0.7 per cent; for the 40 weeks of the financial year so far, they were off 3.3 per cent.

Punch is continuing to trade out of its less attractive pubs; 246 of them have been sold so far to raise £84 million, putting it on track for the £105 million of divestments targeted in this financial year. It has an estate of about 5,000 pubs;